The present invention relates to a disc changer device that houses a plurality of optical discs (hereinafter, referred to as a “disc”) serving as information recording media, such as CDs (compact discs) and DVDs (digital versatile discs), and transports a disc selected from the discs to carry out a recording and/or reproducing operation of information on the selected disc, and more particularly to a tray carry-out method for carrying out a tray to be transported with a disc mounted thereon from a disc recording/reproducing position to a disc exchange position via a stand-by position.
Conventionally, as this type of disc changer devices, those devices that house and transport discs in a chassis that forms an outer frame of the device by using a plurality of trays have been known. In this disc changer device, those trays are stacked in a device-thickness direction perpendicular to a main face of the disc, and arranged so as to be respectively moved in a device-depth direction that is in parallel with the main face of the disc. The disc changer device is designed so that each tray can be transported in the horizontal direction among a stand-by position at which a plurality of trays are housed in the chassis, a disc recording/reproducing position at which a recording or reproducing operation of information signals is carried out on a disc placed on the selected tray, and a disc exchange position at which the tray is allowed to protrude outside from the chassis so that a disc can be placed on the tray or taken out from the tray.
With respect to the disc changer device having the above-mentioned structure, for example, a device disclosed in International Publication No. WO/2007/046514 (Patent Document 1) has been known.
In the disc changer device of Patent Document 1, a discharging process of the respective trays from the disc recording/reproducing position to the disc exchange position is carried out by using two motors. That is, one motor is driven to transport a tray from the disc recording/reproducing position to the stand-by position, and after the transport to the stand-by position, the other motor is driven to transport the tray from the stand-by position to the disc exchange position.